Bowling For Columbine

Bowling for columbine is a misleading documentary movie created by Michael Moore.  It is a documentary for the new generation. Director/star Michael Moore takes to the streets of America and Canada, examining the movie’s main question of why America is such a violent country, especially when guns are involved. This documentary is based on the Massacre of Columbine School. Michael is not trying to find the reasons of this massacre only but also the reasons of Americans being violent in general.

Bowling for Columbine looks for the answers of the questions why Americans are more violent than Canadians for instance? Why America has the highest rate of gun shooting murders? Why is the main reason of the deaths among young people is homicide? He seems to wander from interview to interview; anywhere gun issues are, Michael is there. One of his first visits is a bank in Michigan that gives a rifle to anyone that opens up a new account. The exchange he has there  with the account agent sets the tone of the movie as he asks sardonic questions, such as, “Do you think it’s a little dangerous handing out guns at a bank?”

In the first half of the movie, Michael asked any one who has anything or nothing to do with the guns issues. He used interesting techniques to prove his point. He didn’t directly try to convince people with his point but he asks his questions, let people answer and justify why Americans are violent and reply then to these answers by stating facts and using statistics. The usage of statistics and the irony music in the background was successful to prove his points.

The main point of the movie is brought up by, of all people, Marilyn Manson. The media targeted his angry rock music in the wake of Columbine as a cause, but he claims that part of the reason behind America’s violent crime is the culture of fear in which Americans immerse themselves. From the television show Cops to the nightly news, much of what they see and hear about are the violent crimes. Michael seems to agree, as he creates a collage of television news headlines that barrage viewers with visions of crime after crime, each one hammering in his point further.

Michael met two girls from the Columbine massacre. They were in the same class with Eric and Dylan. Just before the shooting, they were at a Bowling class. Michael asked why did no body blame bowling for wrapping Eric and Dylan’s mind to commit such a crime as they blamed Marilyn Manson. He also said that there’s also a lot of bowling going on in other countries but they are not violent as America. He started to ask some rhetorical questions to prove his point, like: “Don’t they listen to Marilyn Manson in Germany? – Don’t they watch the same violent movies in France?” He also said that most of the violent video games are made from Japan.

Many people in America said that youth turns out to be violent because of the break-up of the family unit but the statistics showed that the Great Britain has more broken home and divorce more than America.

Liberals said that it’s the poverty in America that causes all this violence but the unemployment in Canada is twice what it is in the states.

Americans say that their violent history led them to be a violent society but Michael pointed out all the European countries as counterexamples. He said that Germany has more violent history, also British slaughters that in India, French massacres in Algeria and Japanese occupation of China.

Michael pointed out the violent history of European countries, after some Americans claimed that their violent history is the reason why they are being violent. Then, he mentioned the number of people killed by guns in each country per year. The second highest number of people killed by guns is 381 in Germany while the number of people killed by guns in the states is 11,127.

  

In his quest for truth, Michael brought two columbine victims and went to K-mart stores to ask them to stop selling ammunitions of Handguns. The next day, Michael and the two columbine victims brought the press and went to K-mart headquarter again. In this day, the vice president of communications of K-mart announced that K-mart would no longer sell handguns ammunitions and that in 90 days will be no more selling of weapons or ammunitions.

In the final shootout of the movie, Michael goes to Hollywood to interview the National Rifle Association’s president, Charlton Heston. He asks him questions about his views on guns, the recent school shootings the cruel way Heston held NRA gun rallies in both Littleton and Grand Rapids within a week of the shootings there. He also claims that America’s violent history is the reasons but Michael tells him about the violent history of other countries. Finally, Heston stands up leaving Michael and announces the interview is over

Some of Michael’s conclusions are very tenuous, such as when he decides a welfare work program is responsible for a six-year-old shooting another six-year-old, but his intentions are admirable. He addresses these concerns, pointing out that if he was thinking like the media did when they blamed Manson for the Columbine shooting once his albums were found in the student’s collections, he might as well conclude that bowling was responsible for the shootings, because the two responsible students went to only bowling class before the massacre started.

  

Bowling for Columbine is filled with amazing images and conclusions. The scenes stay in memory long after watching it. Michael has made a powerful film, which captures a very real issue. The humor, mostly ironic, helps lighten the film. The style of Bowling stays away from preaching enough to make the film enjoyable, conveying the message in Moore’s actions.

His methods may be questionable, but the issues Michael brings up aren’t. He doesn’t allow viewers to reject or adopt his views, because he doesn’t present a final thesis with which we can take issue. Instead, we must create our own answers. Bowling for Columbine is a controversial, well-put together film, which raises issues on all sides, and it, unlike movies lately, makes viewers think.